Vulcan Vacay
by Lunabeegood
Summary: Trip is on leave on Vulcan 3 years after T'Pol decided to leave Enterprise and stay on Vulcan with her husband Koss. The story is a Trip & T'Pol story but not an ideal romantic fluffy situation.


**Author's Note: I have been playing with a few ideas about Trip & T'Pol that are romantic, but not overly romantic. They explore alternative existences that place them in compromising and different circumstances that some may not appreciate. This is one of those stories. In this story, T'Pol does not return to Enterprise after the episode Home but stays on Vulcan. Three years have passed.**

 **All the characters belong to Paramount.**

XXX

Trip Tucker walked the streets of the Vulcan fair with Ensign Maeve O'Connell. It was a hot, airless day and he was in less than a jovial mood. Maeve had given him 'the talk' this morning before they departed and Trip was devising a way to break up with her without incident. He wasn't big on long-term relationships and if anything ever got to serious, he cut and run.

"It's the most orderly fair I've seen on any planet," Trip said as Maeve pointed toward a booth with snails.

"It certainly isn't as boisterous as the one on Pinshara," Maeve noted as she laced an arm through his.

Trip wanted to pull away but wasn't sure how she would react.

"Now that was a crazy bazaar," Trip chuckled. "Do you remember the huge ants?"

"They were technically Huyse," Maeve said with perfect dialect. Her role as a translator was apparent whenever she spoke another language. "A pet."

"On Vulcan, they have Schelats," Trip said with amusement. "They are sort of an angry bear."

"Seems like Vulcans would not want a pet that would express any emotion," Maeve laughed. "Are you sure someone wasn't just pulling your leg?"

"Vulcans don't play practical jokes," Trip said as he rubbed at his jaw.

It was then that Trip spotted a familiar pair of ears across the bazaar. Confused, he stopped walking and his breath caught in his throat.

"Trip?" Maeve questioned.

"Uh, just…I…can you give me a minute?" Trip asked, dumbfounded as he walked away from Maeve and toward the object of his fascination.

As he got closer he noticed she was dressed casually and preoccupied with something near her feet.

"T'Pol?" He asked when he got within a few feet of her.

She looked up at his voice and, for a Vulcan, appeared startled and scared all at once.

"I thought that was you," he ploughed forward, despite her obvious discomfort.

"Commander Tucker, I…what are you doing here?" She asked with knitted eyebrows.

"Commander Tucker, is it?" He asked as he stepped forward through a clearing of people.

"I apologize, I am surprised by your…presence," T'Pol said.

"Mama," a little girl said as she pulled at T'Pol's pant leg.

"T'Mir," T'Pol sighed as she lifted the child into her arms and avoided Trip's eyes.

"You have a daughter?" Trip asked, surprised.

"Yes, this is my daughter T'Mir," T'Pol said quietly as she looked toward T'Mir, whose eyes were buried in her neck.

"She's…she's lovely," Trip stammered. "I didn't know…in your last letter you didn't…actually, in none of your letters…"

"It was private," T'Pol stated as her eyes looked around them.

"Private? "Trip asked confused. "You and I have been exchanging letters for three years and you fail to mention that you and Koss have a child?"

"I…" T'Pol sighed.

It was then that the little girl finally looked toward Trip. He gasped when he saw blue-grey eyes looking back at him. They were set above a ski-slope nose that was so distinctly Tucker in genetic make-up it couldn't be missed.

"We should go somewhere more private," T'Pol said when she saw his reaction.

"T'Pol…" Trip sighed.

"Trip, you should see the plums they have!" Maeve said as she claimed his arm.

Trip didn't even look at Maeve, he couldn't take his eyes off the child that was no obviously his.

"Trip?" Maeve asked, worried.

"I'm T'Pol of Vulcan," T'Pol nodded toward Maeve. "I used to serve on Enterprise."

"Nice to meet you," Maeve smiled at T'Pol. "I have read about you."

Trip swallowed hard and his dumbfounded stare met T'Pol's eyes.

"I'm Trip's girlfriend, Maeve," Maeve said with a smile.

"Girlfriend?" T'Pol asked as she tilted her head to the side.

"Maeve, I need to speak with T'Pol for a moment," Trip said as he disentangled his arm from hers. "I'll see you back on the ship."

"Don't let me interrupt your date," T'Pol said with some edge.

"Are you sure? I could wait…" Maeve said, annoyed.

"Please, enjoy the bazaar," Trip said turning to look at her briefly before his eyes went back toward T'Pol and the toddler she held in her arms. "That place we can talk?"

"Mama, I want a…"

"I will prepare the figs for you when we get to the park," T'Pol said softly to her daughter. "Follow me."

Trip nodded and followed her out of the bazaar and down a series of streets. T'Pol's daughter kept sneaking looks at him as T'Pol led him away from the crowd and toward a quieter area of the city.

"I thought you said you were off world?" Trip asked confused.

T'Pol said nothing in return and kept walking.

"So, Vulcans not lying is a load of crap, is it?" Trip asked her, annoyed.

T'Pol didn't reply to his jibe and seemed to quicken her pace slightly.

"I don't like this park," T'Mir complained when she saw where they were.

"T'Mir," T'Pol chastised softly. "You will be appreciative that you have a park to exercise in."

"Okay," T'Mir moaned as T'Pol placed her on the ground by a series of blocks that looked like math equations and patted her bum to go and play with them. "I will prepare your figs."

T'Mir toddled to the blocks and started turning them on a series of spokes, solving the simple math equation.

"T'Pol, she looks like…I mean, could she be…?"

"She's your daughter," T'Pol said softly, not meeting his eyes.

"Mine?" Trip gasped as he sat heavily on a wood bench. "I have a…we have a daughter?"

"T'Mir is 884 days old," T'Pol supplied.

"I'm sorry?" Trip asked.

"I was four months pregnant with your child when I married Koss," T'Pol explained.

"Is T'Mir the reason you are separated?" Trip asked her.

"The marriage was fully nullified two months ago," T'Pol clarified.

"How old is she?" Trip asked.

"Two years, five months and one-day old," T'Pol explained.

"Did you know…?"

"I was unaware of my pregnancy at the time of my marriage," T'Pol explained. "I didn't discover I was pregnant until 39 days after my marriage ceremony."

"Why the fuck didn't you tell me?!" Trip snapped at her.

T'Pol jumped visibly at his anger and T'Mir looked across the playground at her mother.

"Mother is fine," T'Pol reassured her daughter.

Trip looked between mother and child and realized his words had affected T'Mir as well.

"I'm sorry," Trip apologized. "I just…you didn't tell me I have a daughter T'Pol…you must understand that it is…upsetting."

"I was going to tell you," T'Pol started.

"When she was going to college? When?" Trip asked, annoyed.

"Jon told me Enterprise was cleared for leave on Earth in one month," T'Pol explained. "I was going to make arrangements to meet you then. You would have weeks to adjust and…"

"What about the last two and a half years? There wasn't an opportunity then?" Trip asked as he stood abruptly and started to pace in front of her. "You and I have written each other at least once a month since you left!"

"I had to wait until Koss agreed to the full nullification," T'Pol said. "He, as my husband, held all rights over T'Mir regardless of her paternity."

"I'm sorry?" Trip asked.

"The laws of Vulcan are clear," T'Pol explained. "Once we were married, all children I had are his. T'Mir, legally, was his. He could have prevented me from seeing her, from raising her…"

"That's…holy shit, did he know she was mine?" Trip asked.

T'Pol raised an eyebrow at him.

"Kinda hard to miss it, isn't it?" Trip chuckled as he looked toward their daughter. "She's mine."

"It took this long to negotiate the nullification," T'Pol said as she too looked at their daughter.

"What did you have to agree to?" Trip asked, his eyes meeting hers.

"It's unimportant," T'Pol said as she quickly looked at him, then away.

"T'Pol?" Trip inquired.

"I gave him my familial home," T'Pol said softly. "T'Mir and I currently live with my maternal aunt."

"What? He took your home?" Trip asked, upset.

"Compensation for the embarrassment of the nullification and the damage it would do to his reputation," T'Pol explained. "But he rescinded all paternal rights to T'Mir."

"Does T'Mir…was he good to her?"

"He took contracts that were some distance away," T'Pol explained. "He spent little time with us over the course of my marriage. When he was home he was not mean to T'Mir."

"But not kind either?" Trip inquired.

"He was…as good as could be expected. He never harmed her, merely ignored her," T'Pol explained.

"And she thinks he's her father?" Trip asked.

"She has always called him Koss," T'Pol explained. "She has never asked about her father, and I have never explained."

"And you lived like this…all this time?" Trip asked.

"I wanted to tell you," T'Pol explained. "But I couldn't risk upsetting Koss further. I needed the nullification to protect T'Mir."

Trip nodded his head in understanding.

"T'Mir, come and get your figs," T'Pol called to their daughter as she held out a small ceramic container with cut figs in it.

T'Mir ran to her mother and, in the sunlight, Trip noticed blonde streaks in her hair that hadn't caught his eye before.

"Thank you, mama," T'Mir said with a smile before she took the dish from her mother's hands.

"Go eat them at the table," T'Pol said as she handed T'Mir a fork.

Trip watched his daughter in awe take the fork and walk carefully to the other table balancing the dish in her small hands.

"Holy hell, we have a daughter," Trip sighed as he looked between T'Mir and T'Pol. "I thought Vulcans and humans…"

"She shouldn't have made it to term," T'Pol said softly. "When I discovered I was pregnant and that the timing meant it had to have been yours…a sympathetic doctor aided me."

"Aided you?" Trip asked, worried. "She's okay?"

"She's perfect," T'Pol said with a small smile. "But I needed a series of injections so my body wouldn't reject her based on her human genes. She was surprised I hadn't miscarried already."

"The doctor?" Trip asked.

"T'Ken," T'Pol explained. "T'Mir's Vulcan DNA is dominant so, luckily, my body adjusted to the recessive human genes."

"Those eyes, that nose, and those blonde streaks don't seem so recessive," Trip noted.

"Mere decoration," T'Pol explained. "On the inside, she's Vulcan in every other way. Her blood is green, her heart is in her abdomen, her intellect and physical strength are all Vulcan."

"Wow!" Trip shook his head, unbelieving. "She's got the Vulcan ears too."

"Yes, thankfully," T'Pol sighed.

"Thankfully? I seem to remember your fascination with mine," Trip said as he looked at her smiling.

T'Pol shifted uncomfortably.

"I was teasing, T'Pol," Trip said as he touched her arm.

"I don't think your girlfriend would appreciate it," T'Pol countered.

"My…you mean Maeve?" Trip asked. "We're not serious."

"You are sexually active with her," T'Pol noted.

"Huh?" Trip asked, wondering how she could possibly know that.

"You had sexual relations with her today," T'Pol said calmly. "I could smell you on her."

Trip sighed and covered his eyes as he massaged his temples. "It's been three years. You left me to marry another man. I won't apologize for not being a saint."

"I apologize, you are completely right," T'Pol said.

"Are you going to tell me that you didn't consummate your marriage?" Trip asked her, cringing at the thought of her with Koss.

"We have both been with others," T'Pol merely acknowledged.

Trip closed his eyes and swallowed hard. He wasn't a stupid man, of course she's slept with her husband; he just didn't like knowing it.

His watch alarm beeped and he quickly turned it off.

"You are expected back on Enterprise," T'Pol said as she started to gather their things.

"No, I…I'm not going anywhere," Trip said as he placed a hand on her arm.

"Don't be illogical, you have responsibilities…" T'Pol said.

"I have a daughter!" Trip said loudly as he grabbed both of her shoulders. "One that has lived for two and a half years without me and won't live one more day without me ever again."

T'Pol looked at him confused.

"Give me a minute to contact the Captain," Trip said as he looked at her carefully.

"You are being illogical," T'Pol said with a tilt of her head.

Trip merely smiled at her and kissed her forehead before he walked to the edge of the park and called Enterprise on his comm.

T'Pol looked between T'Mir and Trip and closed her eyes for a moment. She had it all planned for next month, they had their passage booked and she was going to tell T'Mir about her father then. She knew Trip, once he knew about T'Mir would want to spent time with her, and she knew, as a result she was probably never going to return to Vulcan again. They would make their home on Earth, and Trip, when he had leave, would have access to his child. She had no misconceptions about a romantic relationship between them; she had deceived him about one of the most important aspects of his life. Sure, it was for logical reasons, but it was still a deception. No, she was going to rectify this situation in whatever way she could, even if it meant she would live near Trip and his family, watching the life she could never have.

"I've been granted emergency leave," Trip said when he rejoined her.

"I'm sorry?" T'Pol asked turning to look at him.

"Jon sends his regards and wants to meet T'Mir during the next leave," Trip said with a smile.

"You're staying?" T'Pol asked, surprised.

"Yep," Trip said as he placed his hands on his hips. "If it's too crowded at your aunts, I can get a place at Starfleet base or…"

"You wish to stay with us?" T'Pol asked, confused.

"Ideally, but I understand if it's too much, too fast," Trip said as he looked back at T'Mir who was back to playing with the math equation blocks.

"I'm just surprised you so readily relinquished your position to be with T'Mir," T'Pol said as she looked at him perplexed.

"To be with both of you," Trip said as he touched her arm. "That is, if you haven't got a Vulcan boyfriend since your divorce."

"My sole focus has been T'Mir," T'Pol said, slightly out of breath. She sensed the direction of their conversation and was suddenly more hopeful then she had been in a long time.

"I know it's been a while, and we've changed, and T'Mir and I need to get to know each other…" Trip started. "But I have to tell you T'Pol, I haven't stopped thinking about you or caring for you."

"Or I you," T'Pol admitted.

"Then," Trip said as he took her hands in his. "We're already halfway there."

"You can forgive me for keeping T'Mir a secret?" T'Pol asked, hopeful.

"I logically understand why," Trip admitted as he rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb. "But my heart's going to have to catch up to my head."

T'Pol nodded. "I understand."

"I'm not going to say that I'm okay with missing the first two and a half years of her life," Trip said as he met her eyes. "But knowing that she's ours, and healthy, and sweet as can be…well, that sorta counts for a lot."

T'Pol stepped into his arms and he, surprised, wrapped them around her back.

"God, I've missed you," Trip sighed as he smelled her hair.

T'Pol nodded against his chest.

"Mama?" T'Mir asked as she stood next to them.

"T'Mir, are you finished your exercise?" T'Pol asked as she wiped a stray tear from her eyes and pulled away from Trip.

T'Mir looked at her mother surprised by the emotion and then at Trip with a confused expression.

"I am," T'Mir nodded. "One more slide?"

"We are staying on my aunt's living room furniture," T'Pol explained as she nodded her head in the affirmative for T'Mir. "There isn't room, unfortunately, for…"

"I'll get a hotel room for you two and another for me," Trip said as he watched his daughter run back toward the play structure. "Living on a ship doesn't give me a lot of things to spend money on."

"I couldn't ask you to…"

"He took all of your money as well?" Trip asked her.

"I have not worked since I discovered I was with child," T'Pol said honestly. "It was a high-risk pregnancy. I went through most of my savings and the remainder went with my familial home as it was tied to the estate."

"He really took everything," Trip sighed.

"I gladly paid it for T'Mir's freedom," T'Pol nodded. "He was a good man, truly."

"A good man that took your home and your money?" Trip asked as he watched her gather her things. "You have an awfully broad definition of…"

"He was willing to make it work until she was born and so obviously looked like you," T'Pol said. "His pride was harmed and he grew distant after that. He did his best with the situation."

Trip looked at her disbelieving.

"Even after everything?" Trip asked as he watched T'Mir wave from the top of the slide.

"He didn't ask to be placed in this situation," T'Pol waved back at her daughter. "None of us did."

Trip looked at her confused for a moment. "Do you regret having T'Mir?"

T'Pol looked at him shocked.

"T'Mir is the greatest gift I have ever received," she said honestly.

Trip leaned down and kissed her forehead softly. "Thank you."

"For?" T'Pol asked.

"T'Mir," Trip said with a smile.

T'Pol looked up at him and felt her heart fill with love.

"Come on mama!" T'Mir yelled.

Trip grabbed the satchel she had packed and walked with T'Pol toward T'Mir.

"What time to store close on Vulcan?" Trip asked as T'Pol hoisted T'Mir into her arms and walked with him.

"Why?" T'Pol inquired.

"Because all I have are the clothes on my back and with your and T'Mir's sense of smell and the hot sun…I'm going to need to buy some clothes and deodorant."

T'Pol looked at him and released a very un-Vulcan-like chuckle.

"Mama?" T'Mir asked as she looked at her mother surprised.

"T'Mir, you are going to learn to laugh very soon," T'Pol said as she snuggled her daughter against her.

T'Mir looked at her mother confused and felt the man's hand softly cup the back of her head.

"There's nothing to be scared of," Trip said softly as he looked at her. "We're all going to be just fine."


End file.
